Tourism RESET is a multi-university and interdisciplinary research and outreach initiative that seeks to identify, study, and challenge patterns of social inequity in the tourism industry.

Special attention is focused on enhancing the role of racial and ethnic minorities in development, however the inequity and injustices highlighted through RESET can also include a broad swath of existing struggles such as human trafficking in hospitality, animal welfare in tourism, inclusion of people with disabilities, and the continuing power issues related to gender in economically developing and developed contexts. Little sustained work has been done on the preferences, characteristics, and challenges of marginalized travelers and there is a need to incorporate the natural and cultural heritage of racial and ethnic populations into tourism products available to the consuming public.

RESET captures the progressive nature of the initiative and the belief that tourism development, if done in sustainable and responsible ways, can be tools for racial reconciliation and empowerment - in effect pressing the “reset” button on the inequalities and insensitivity of the traditional tourism industry.